


Christmas Gift

by TeriH



Category: The Magnificent Seven (TV)
Genre: Gen, Holidays, Magnificent Seven AU: ATF
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-26
Updated: 2019-04-26
Packaged: 2020-02-04 17:48:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18609469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeriH/pseuds/TeriH
Summary: Originally published in Magnificent Holidays #7 (Neon RainBow Press, 2010)Ezra gets a special gift.





	Christmas Gift

Ezra Standish stood just outside the doorway looking in.  He felt that he had been on the outside looking in his whole life.   What was it that the commercials all said… Christmas is a time for family and friends?  Well he had just made his annual Christmas day call to Maude.  The usual pleasantries had been exchanged and the annual promise of “Next year, Darling” had ended the conversation.  Ezra had to wonder how many times he had heard that phrase…next year.  _Oh well, so much for family._ Friends, now that was a different matter.

With a smile, Ezra realized that all he had to do was take one step and he would be back among his friends.  No longer on the outside and alone, but one of a much larger unit, yet something held him back.  Wasn’t New Year’s Eve meant to be a time of reflection, yet here he stood on Christmas Day.  He had been the last man chosen to ATF Team 7 and had held himself apart from the other members of the group, a bit of self-preservation that he had learned from experience.  However, this was a group that did nothing halfway and he had been pulled, sometimes kicking and screaming, into the fold.

Looking through the door Ezra could see the remnants of wrapping paper, boxes and bows strewn around the room.  The other six men of Team 7 seemed to mimic the inanimate objects as they lay sprawled over the furniture and floor of Chris’s living room watching football.  Granted, a few were watching with their eyes closed, but would never admit to actually sleeping. 

JD was busily spinning the Sudoku Rubik’s cube that Ezra had given him.  It had taken the young man a mere 15 minutes to solve it the first time.  Vin had mixed up the numbers yet again and JD was currently trying to improve his score.  Josiah was thumbing through the Zen gardening book he had received from Nathan and Vin had snagged yet another candy cane from the Christmas tree, ignoring Chris’s glare, and was happily munching away.

Ezra looked to where his gifts stood stacked.  A bottle of wine from Josiah, a book from Nathan, while Chris had given him tickets to an upcoming symphony.  Bucks gift had been fuzzy dice for the Jag.  He had no idea where Buck had found a pair made from mink and didn’t plan to ask, but had seen the humor in it just the same. JD had given him a James Bond DVD set.  How the kid had found out it was a favorite of his was another mystery.  Vin had gifted him with a much needed saddle blanket for Chaucer.   He had made quite a hall as the saying goes.  

Pulling himself from his reverie, Ezra heard Vin call his name. 

“Ez, ya planning on standing there all day?  Sides I have a wager for ya…bet I can hit Buck's mouth more times with the popcorn off of this here string on the tree than you can.” Vin smirked as he nodded toward the snoring Wilmington.

“Mr. Tanner, that is a bet I can not refuse.”

Taking that final step over the threshold, into the welcoming warmth of friendship, Ezra realized that the best Christmas gift he had ever received was sitting in this very room. 

 

 

 

 


End file.
